Tuesday, 16 October 2012

A belated introduction

Everyone needs one of these, so I figured I should get off my ass and post mine. Since my first two posts were in reaction to specific piles of bullshit, I never got around to talking about myself. For the 2-3 people out there who actually give a shit, here's a little bit about myself.

My name, for all intents and purposes, is Shadow. I am by trade a personal trainer. In theory the majority of my job is either convincing someone that I know the best way to get them in shape, or having done the former, putting that plan into action, and improving their health and well being, and it's very fulfilling. In practice, I spend a lot of my day yelling at fat bankers and lawyers who pay me to do so, this is fulfilling in it's own way too. I also teach kickboxing, basic grappling, and women's self defense classes, this provides the aforementioned fat bankers and lawyers the opportunity to punch me in the face (which rarely happens), and the women to kick me in sensitive areas , albeit through heavy padding. This is significantly less fulfilling, but practicing at full force against a resisting opponent is an important part of the training.

As you now doubt guessed by the nature of my work, I enjoy physical activity, I like lifting weights, I avoid running like the plague, unless there is a bear involved. I have had an active career in kickboxing and Muay Thai (no they are not the same thing), and I compete at the international level at BJJ and Submission Wrestling. I have a national championship and 2 UFC expo tournament golds to my name, in addition to a bunch of other medals that you don't give a shit about. Before you ask no I don't "do mma", although I did previously have a short and painful career as a pro wrestler, during the year and a half of which I did more damage to my body then in almost a decade of competitive legitimate martial arts.

When I am not lifting heavy objects, inflicting pain on my opponents or shouting at the 1%, I spend my time on the internet and playing video games, RPGs mainly, sometimes shooters, but never sports games, I haven't played any sports games (unless you count mario kart) since the mutant league games, and I refuse to play sports games again until the ability to detonate the opposing lineman with an explosive fart returns to console gaming.

There are some things I stand for, on the internet I stand for them vocally, and in the real world I donate my time and money where appropriate to advance these causes. I am an atheist, which means, and only means, that I do not believe in a god or gods, and to the best of my knowledge, I never have. I speak out for the acceptance of the atheist in society at large, and also for secularism, which is probably the only world-view that truly stems from atheism. (Although this is not technically true, I assume all people have at least some sense of self preservation, and since the preservation of ones self as an atheist requires at least a somewhat secular society, I will stand by my assertion.)

I read books, lots and lots of fucking books, some about fitness, most about dragons and spies and things that explode. I ready 3-4 at a given time and usually finish said cycle of 3-4 books within a week or two if they're longer. Right now the 4 are "The Flexible Periodization method" by Karsten Jensen, "Stories" edited by Neil Gaiman, "The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower" by Stephen King and "A Briefer History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.

I stand strongly for free speech, and the free exchange of ideas, and although I believe everyone has the right to control how much free speech is allowed with their own domain, I also reserve the right to call you a fucking coward and a censor if you suppress dissenting opinions simply because you can.

I am a huge supporter of equal rights, and this means I support minorities, LGBTQ people, and any group which is discriminated against for no other reason than what they are. Although who you are and what you do can and will be held against you, and probably thoroughly mocked, -WHAT- you are has no effect on your value as a human being on my eyes.

My stance as a supporter of equal rights also makes me, in regards to most issues, a feminist (*gasp!*). But of a particular variety, namely the variety that believes all women should have the same opportunities and treatment as men in society. That's it. It means that I want to bring you up to my level, that I was elevated to for nothing other then being born with a penis. It does not mean I give a shit about your feelings, if you think that "being sexualized" is anything other then an evolutionary mechanism for the preservation of the species, then you need to hop a ride on the clue train (last stop is you). I also support men's rights in those rare cases where they are the one's being discriminated against, and yes I am aware this is exceedingly rare. However if you are acting like a stuck up bitch, or an entitled cunt, I will call you on it, just as I would call a man who's acting like a dickhead, a dickhead.

There's a lot more to me then this of course, however, that's enough to share for now, as I'm starting to bore myself to death with this shit. I'll post another one of these sometime a ways into the future maybe, who knows, but there are more pertinent posts to be made between now and then.